Blog

Lt. Hewett at USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards AFB - class 64B with a T-38

If you can guess who this young man is on the Red Bull Stratos team, then you are truly in tune with the guys who made all the working parts of the mission possible. Let’s rewind the clock to see Marle Hewett’s life as a young aviator.

Marle is a retired Navy Commander. His 20-year military career included service as a decorated pilot and test pilot, head of Flying Qualities and Performance in a flight test division, and chairman of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Aerospace Engineering Department.

Marle knows the risks of flying at high altitudes. While it’s not typical for the human body to tolerate a lack of oxygen, Marle was the exception to the rule as a young Naval aviator. He could keep his wits for 5 minutes in a pressure chamber at 25,000 feet without wearing an oxygen mask. Again, an exceptional physical reaction.

Before any of the Red Bull Stratos manned test flights had begun, useful consciousness was among many of the big medical topics. The amount of time a person can stay alert lacking oxygen varies greatly depending on altitude and personal physical condition, i.e. smoker vs. non-smoker. Marle was clearly in peak condition.

Back on the road after returning to his home town in Austria, Felix Baumgartner talks to journalists in the UK about his supersonic jump from 128,100 feet (39,045 meters). This week Felix was interviewed by Tim Muffett, host of “BBC Breakfast” morning TV show, at the Science Museum in London. Additional programs include: Capital Breakfast radio show, the Graham Norton Show and “This Morning” in London. Felix also received a stack of letters from school kids across the UK congratulating him and sharing their own dreams. The Director of Education and Space Communications at the National Space Centre in Leicester, Anu Ohja, came all the way to London to meet with Joe Kittinger and Felix to hear more about the mission.

“My advice to Felix as he moves on is to take advantage of this opportunity to be an Ambassador for the UN and encourage the youth of the world,” said Col. Joe Kittinger, the mentor who held the records Baumgartner broke in New Mexico. “As for the rest of us, I am sure we will all look for other challenges, but we will never have one as exciting as Red Bull Stratos.”

The Red Bull Stratos team welcomed representatives from over 40 media outlets to Hangar-7 in Salzburg for the first press conference since the day of Felix Baumgartner’s successful jump from 128,100 feet / 39.040 meters on October 14. They shared video capturing the sonic boom Felix’s body created when he passed through the speed of sound.

“We think the sonic boom happened not as he went in to the sound barrier but when he slowed back down, said Dr. Jonathan Clark, the mission’s medical director and formerly a six-time Space Shuttle Crew Surgeon. “We hear the Shuttle when it comes back through the sound barrier; it makes the same noise. And so although this was quieter, when four teams on the ground in New Mexico, including expert personnel, all heard it, we knew that – no question – he broke the sound barrier.”

The team is analyzing the recording, including use of an algorithm typically employed by NASA, to precisely determine where the sonic boom occurred. But in the meantime, technical project director Art Thompson confirmed, “Having reached an estimated Mach 1.24, Felix is now definitely the fastest man on earth.”